Affidavit: Carlos Ortiz heavy drug user, evaded treatment

Jul. 11, 2013
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In two affidavits, Carlos Ortiz, has told police he was in a car with former New
England Patriot Aaron Hernandez and Odin Lloyd, along with another man, the night Lloyd was killed. Ortiz also confessed to his probation officer that he was a heavy drug abuser. Ortiz is being held without bail in Massachusetts on a weapons charge, while Hernandez has been charged with murder in Lloyd's death. / Angela Rowlings, AP

by Kevin Manahan, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Manahan, USA TODAY Sports

BRISTOL, Conn. - If Carlos Ortiz is going to be a star witness in the murder case against Aaron Hernandez, he won't come without blemishes.

Ortiz has an extensive criminal record, including convictions for larceny, assault, criminal mischief and interfering with an officer, court records show.

There's more: In an affidavit for his arrest on a probation violation obtained Wednesday by USA TODAY Sports, police say Ortiz met with his probation officer on May 21 and "disclosed that he was abusing PCP, alcohol and THC daily."

Ortiz was ordered to enter an in-patient drug abuse program, but did not keep an appointment two days later, according to the document.

Over the next month, Ortiz ducked treatment by claiming to have lost his cell phone and, according to the affidavit, telling his probation officer on June 18 that he would have reported but "didn't know where to go."

That was six days after a drug test showed Ortiz tested positive for alcohol, cocaine, PCP and THC, the document said.

Probation officers spent the next two weeks trying to find Ortiz, who finally surfaced on a surveillance video at Hernandez's home on the night of Odin Lloyd's murder on June 17. In traveling to Massachusetts, Ortiz violated his probation for fifth-degree larceny. Bristol police arrested him June 25.

Ortiz was extradited to Massachusetts and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.

A message left at the office of Ortiz's attorney, John Connors of Fall River, Mass., was not returned.

Affidavits used for search warrants in Florida and Massachusetts have revealed that Ortiz told police that Ernest Wallace, the fourth man in the car that night, told Ortiz that Hernandez shot and killed Lloyd, 27, a Hernandez friend and semipro football player.

In the documents, Ortiz said the car they were all riding in stopped in an industrial park near Hernandez's home, and the other three men got out to urinate. Shots rang out, Ortiz said, and Hernandez and Wallace returned to the car, and then sped back to Hernandez's home.

Ortiz told investigators it was too dark to see who had fired the shots but that on the drive back to Bristol with Wallace the next day, Wallace told him that Hernandez had fired the shots that killed Lloyd.

Ortiz, documents showed, was the tipster who told police about Hernandez's secret apartment in Franklin, Mass. Neighbors there said Wallace and Hernandez spent time there, with Wallace using his middle name "George" and referring to Hernandez as his "cousin."

Hernandez, who pleaded not guilty to murder and five gun charges, is being held without bail. Wallace, charged with being an accessory after the fact, also is being held without bail.